My friend, Akshay Kumar was so dull today morning. I asked, “Why
man, you are so dull?” He answered me, “It’s about my village (in Bihar). There my parents are struggling with hip
level water. I m in Bangalore, How can I help them?” He sighed a long sad
breath. I cannot answer.
“Hi chill up man, tomorrow bandh. Holiday. Enjoy.”
With this one more event I must share up to you.
One of my students, Ms. A asked me, “Sir, are you supporting Tamil
Nadu? Tomorrow bandh sir. If you are supporting Tamil Nadu you should not
support this bandh. Come to school and work.” I cannot answer.
Karnataka government called for bandh tomorrow to go against the
verdict of Supreme Court.
I think that it is extremely harsh on the people of Karnataka.
Including me. My students cannot attend the classes. Exam is nearing. I should
be burning my midnight oil. Why should be an holiday? And why should Saturday be
full working day?
But who is to be blamed for it? Tamil Nadu government? Supreme
Court? Karnataka government and lawyers?
Tamil Nadu government did not do anything wrong by appealing to
the Supreme Court and asking for water. They too were in a desperate situation.
My parents are living in Madurai. The situation there is bad. The biggest
disadvantage Tamil Nadu has is that they have only one major river basin in the
state i.e. the Kaveri river basin. There is no major river there apart from
Kaveri. The entire state is totally dependent on Kaveri.
When
Tamil Nadu filed the petition in the Supreme Court, a group of farmer
representatives from that state met the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
and requested him to release some water so that their samba crop wouldn’t be
damaged. The Karnataka government clearly told them that the water level in the
reservoirs in the Kaveri basin is very low and we wouldn’t be able to supply
water. The state’s lawyers also communicated the same to the Supreme Court
initially. The people in Karnataka including myself also thought there was no
water in our reservoirs and hence wouldn’t be able to release water to Tamil
Nadu.
But on the day of the hearing, our great lawyers communicated to
the Supreme Court that Karnataka would be able to release at least 10 TMC ft of
water to Tamil Nadu over a period of 7 days. Tamil Nadu had demanded 15-20 TMC
ft of water to be released over a period of 10–15 days. The SC on its part came
up with a middle figure and directed Karnataka to release 13 TMC ft water over
a period of 10 days. Look at the irresponsibility of the Karnataka lawyers.
They said at least 10 TMC ft and not at most 10 TMC ft!
Moreover if we were in a position to supply 10 TMC ft of water,
why didn’t the CM negotiate with the farmer representatives of Tamil Nadu? All
this mess could have been easily sorted out. The only insensitive thing said by
the SC bench was when they said “live and let live” to Karnataka. It is
insensitive because in the matter concerning the Mahadayi dispute, the tribunal
ruled in favour of Goa and rejected Karnataka’s demand. So much for “live and
let live”.
For years, politicians and lawyers have taken both the people of
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for a ride. In the end, it is the common people living
in both the states that have suffered either because the judgement was not in
their favour or because of the backlash in their respective states. It is time
that people say enough is enough. We can’t keep fighting amongst ourselves.
States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana
must pressurize the Central government so that the interlinking of rivers can
be done. The Himalayan rivers never go dry and their water can be used in the
south where the rivers go dry if in case rains fail.
Ok. We will go to international water sharing rules.
The Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International
Rivers is an international guideline regulating how rivers and their connected ground
waters that cross national boundaries may be used, adopted by the International
Law Association(ILA) in Helsinki, Finland in August 1966.
The Helsinki rules consist of 37 articles spread over 6
chapters.[3]Chapter 2, Article 4 states: "Each basin State is entitled,
within its territory, to a reasonable and equitable share in the beneficial
uses of the waters of an international drainage basin".In determining what
is reasonable and equitable share, all relevant factors are to be considered
together and a conclusion reached on the basis of the whole.
A slice of information about Kaveri river basin:
The Kaveri river’s basin covers four states and Union Territories,
as follows: Tamil Nadu, 43,856 square kilometers; Karnataka, 34,273 square
kilometers; Kerala, 2,866 square kilometers; and Puducherry, 160 square
kilometers.
Interlinking of rivers was one of the dreams of our beloved
President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. It is up to us to make sure that we do something
on the issue. The states that I have mentioned pay the highest taxes to the
Central government. If they collectively put enough sustained pressure, the
Central government will be forced to act. Calling a bandh, burning buses,
disrupting vehicular movement, and causing hatred among people is not at all a
viable solution. Measures need to be taken so that Tamil Nadu is no longer too
reliant on Kaveri and Karnataka also doesn’t have a problem to release water if
required.
I
think the conclusion is enough for the answer to Mr. Akshay Kumar and Ms. A.
The questions may be different. But answer is same.
